Ch.112Deviation (7)

There is a significant difference in vocabulary between those who have a translation status window and those who don’t.

Such was the case with Eshatherna and the woman who was both Yoon Se-ah and Lucilla.

Only Lucilla, who had learned Korean, understood exactly what those words meant.

But Eshatherna had her own intuition.

She sensed that the unfamiliar term just mentioned was some kind of name or title, something that only Lucilla and Luwellin understood between them.

This confirmed they were siblings. Though they appeared to be something beyond mere siblings, she refrained from making assumptions.

It was disappointing not to fight. But it was also fortunate.

Now that the entire upper part of the dungeon had been torn away, the implementation clearly seemed to be something that couldn’t be completed when Eshatherna was adventuring with him.

Eshatherna wasn’t someone who could fight while sparing enemies in the face of such firepower. An assassin was optimized for killing.

Having made killing her lifelong profession, Eshatherna remained silent and observed the two.

In any case, having one more person to dote on her was a good thing.

Eshatherna still couldn’t forget when Lucilla had “grabbed her head, rubbed her cheeks for a long time, then combed her disheveled hair while giving her a forehead kiss.”

‘I’d like her to do that again.’

So what remained were the siblings. The siblings looked into each other’s eyes, trying to read the situation.

Among them, the older sister, Yoon Se-ah, was frozen in shock at hearing her name after several years.

The feeling was strange. She hadn’t thought she would hear it again, nor had she expected to hear it from her brother’s lips.

In truth, she was both certain and afraid.

The reason her brother hadn’t revealed himself as her brother might be because he didn’t like her.

Perhaps he had belatedly noticed the dark corners of her personality that she had harbored all her life and was now wary or keeping his distance.

So she had made a decision to hand over the hilt of the knife and wait for her brother to make his own choice, a decision entirely dependent on the other’s will.

Though it was agonizing, she thought it was better that way. She had hoped to regain at least some trust through that.

Lucilla thought that decision was now bearing fruit.

She had regained trust. She felt a faint elation and also a faint fear.

‘No, that’s not it.’

She became calm. In fact, she became excessively calm.

‘He even used my surname. It’s not because he was afraid I wouldn’t recognize him. He could have just called me “noona” as he used to, or “Seah noona”…’

But he had spoken informally. And he had used her full name, including her surname.

That made her hesitate. That was why the former Yoon Se-ah, now Lucilla, was hesitating.

Siblings tend to resemble each other. Luwellin was perplexed as he looked at his sister who was just staring at him without reaction.

‘Why isn’t she responding?’

It was neither the reaction he had expected nor anticipated.

A sister who would rush to him with overwhelming emotion, claiming to be his sister.

Or a sister who would smile and ask if he had finally made up his mind.

Or even a Guardian who would demand to know what he was thinking.

He had assumed it would be one of the three. It was none of them. Luwellin briefly reconsidered his actions and realized.

Though it was the wrong conclusion.

‘Did Netel try something with my sister? Like sending someone pretending to be me…?’

If Netel, who lacked reason and rationality, had the sense to make such a judgment, this would be infuriating news to hear through the earth. Netel wasn’t desperate enough to use such tricks, and the traitor was difficult to sense.

Above all, there was no rationality or logic in Netel’s actions, so this was a completely wrong assumption and speculation.

But with no one to hint at this, Luwellin hesitated for a moment.

‘Should I prove that I’m her brother?’

Several methods of proof flashed through his mind and then faded.

‘No, but what if this silence isn’t because she’s suspicious?’

He was getting closer to the truth.

‘…What if she really wanted to abandon me?’

And then he threw himself at another wrong answer.

Since siblings resemble each other, the two were just having a staring contest.

Eshatherna, watching from behind, tilted her head first and said:

“…My lord, young lord. What are you doing?”

To the point where she had to say that.

There was little reason to doubt they were siblings.

That’s why she immediately accepted it when Luwellin said so.

Their mannerisms were similar. Their overall appearances were similar, and their reactions when being doted on were similar too.

It would be strange if they weren’t siblings. So Eshatherna felt a subtle frustration.

How many years had it been since she realized she was insane? Eshatherna almost displayed the universal gesture of chest-thumping at the siblings’ frustrating behavior that made even her own madness pale in comparison.

And Luwellin took Eshatherna’s words as some kind of signal and gathered his courage.

It was because he hadn’t looked back. Luwellin mistakenly thought Eshatherna was eager to fight.

He needed to stop her.

‘Proof.’

He needed to be more assertive.

‘Proof that I am my sister’s brother.’

A determined look appeared on his face, and Lucilla flinched upon seeing it.

Luwellin’s heart beat roughly, and the divine power flowing through his heart became his will.

Gathering his courage, Luwellin opened his mouth.

“…When you came to my graduation ceremony.”

Lucilla and Luwellin’s memories overlapped.

“I insisted we go out to eat. Even though I knew we couldn’t afford it, because everyone else was doing it. I wanted to do it too.”

Lucilla remained quiet. She didn’t know her brother had thought that way, and she didn’t know why he was telling her this now.

Luwellin paused and hesitated for a long time. It was difficult to reveal his own vulnerabilities.

“But you indulged my childish wish.”

Lucilla recalled that time. Though his face was different then and he was much shorter.

He was still her lovable brother. Even then, her brother was her reason for living.

“It was a knight’s restaurant. You kept apologizing for not being able to take me somewhere more expensive, and I got annoyed at you for that… but I was happy because it was the first time I’d gone out to eat with you.”

The food wasn’t particularly special either.

Luwellin knew well that their financial situation wasn’t good, though not as bad as his sister’s, so they couldn’t afford to order expensive dishes.

But Luwellin remembered what they ate then, the atmosphere of the restaurant, and his sister who looked at him kindly while constantly apologizing.

“I still remember what I said then.”

How could he forget?

From Luwellin’s experience, either his mother or father or both had the ability to read memories.

But the emotions attached to memories are separate.

‘So I appeal to the emotions contained in the memory. If it’s my sister, she’ll surely know that much.’

At that moment, Luwellin briefly considered the chilling possibility that he might be a homunculus who had taken the memories of someone who was once a brother.

But he quickly dismissed it as irrelevant.

That was Luwellin’s strength.

While he might get caught up in trivial details and couldn’t be bold when it came to family matters.

In other matters, he was genuinely bold. It was the same now. He dismissed such non-trivial existential questions as trivial.

He genuinely thought narratives where fakes become real were cool, so he believed that if he truly was a fake, he just needed to become real.

It was unclear whether this was stupidity or boldness, but at least he considered himself bold.

Luwellin met Lucilla’s eyes. The whites of her eyes were still stained black, making them demon eyes.

But her pupils were the same gray.

Her hair was also the same black, and the same slightly wavy texture.

They were identical. Because their physical bodies were essentially those of siblings.

And the souls within were also siblings. At least Luwellin believed so.

So Luwellin said:

“It’s still true. That’s why I didn’t give up even after falling here, and why I desperately survived.”

This should be enough to prove I’m her brother.

That’s what Luwellin thought.

But there was no need for that.

Due to the excellent translation and interpretation function of the status window, Lucilla had already guessed that Luwellin was her brother from his use of Korean several times.

She had only thought that her brother had learned the language through trial and error like she had.

But the words from Luwellin’s mouth stimulated Lucilla’s already weak tear ducts.

The black-stained whites of her eyes returned to their original color, and with tears welling up, Lucilla rushed toward him.

She was fast. Luwellin wasn’t prepared and couldn’t block her, but he wouldn’t have blocked her anyway.

Luwellin flinched as his sister threw herself into his chest.

She had considerable mass. But Luwellin desperately composed himself.

As his fragile mental strength, which he considered superhuman in his own way, barely regained its place, Lucilla buried her face in her brother’s embrace.

When they were on Earth, if she hugged him like this, she could rest her chin on her brother’s shoulder.

‘Back then, our faces would be close when we did this.’

The distinctly masculine scent emanating from his body was incredibly good, both then and now.

‘He was so cute back then. Now he’s grown so manly.’

Knowing how much he had changed.

Lucilla fell silent as she embraced her brother after a long time.

Naturally, Eshatherna, standing behind and watching, grew bored.

Due to her madwoman’s characteristically selective short attention span and stimulus-seeking personality, she let out a long yawn and chose to take a nap instead of waiting for the siblings to finish their reunion.

Inside the dungeon with its ceiling blown open to the sky.

While the siblings embraced, and the elven assassin curled up to sleep.

As Luwellin closed his eyes to enjoy his sister’s embrace after so long, and Lucilla buried her face in her now-larger brother’s chest with a womanly demeanor, a massive shadow fell over their heads.

Something enormous that crossed the sky.

If they had come to their senses and looked up, they would have seen it.

For it was passing directly above their heads in the sky.

It was something that was predominantly black.

With countless tall towers, and in the center of those gathered towers was something like a massive fortress.

The magical formulas engraved across the entire surface of the castle glowed, pushing away the mana that filled the world, allowing it to rise and fly on its own.

Perhaps because of this, only Esha, who opened her eyes sensing the displaced mana, saw it.

“Ah.”

It was a castle.

It was also the main force of some knightly order, and a siege weapon that could easily overwhelm even certain wizards.

But its most essential role was as a fortress.

A sanctuary for knights who had no place to rest anywhere in the world, capable of repelling even certain wizards.

Esha knew its name.

It was the masterpiece of the Anti-Magic School and the main castle of the Black Knight Order.

“Shadow Cradle…”

While the siblings couldn’t even hear such a voice, listening only to each other’s heartbeats.

At last, the Black Knight Order had landed on the New Continent.